Already launched in China, the two most recent Honor devices, a laptop and smart band, are re-launched for the rest of the world at CES 2021. These are the first product announcements since the brand has been sold to Chinese investors and will be separated from Huawei, its original parent family.
Honor MagicBook Pro
The 16.1-inch Honor MagicBook Pro laptop is absolutely exciting, as it is a $1000 computer that seems designed to maximize performance/value metrics.
The slick design includes a hidden webcam in a function key – that’s great for privacy but isn’t the best angle to film from. A fingerprint reader will ensure that you won’t have to type this long, very secure password every time you return to your computer.
It ships with a Core i5 10210U Intel processor and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX350 GPU, which is a good compromise in cost/performance in pretty much all use cases.
The display has a 16/9 aspect ratio, which tells us that it favors multimedia and gaming applications (vs. productivity). On top of that, it features skinny 4.9mm bezels that are usually found in more expensive laptops.
"A LEADING LAPTOP IN ITS PRICE CATEGORY"The HP Newest Pavilion 16.1” laptop is perhaps the only real competitor around ~$1000 that can muster 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. It is still a much larger computer at 23.6mm of thickness versus the Honor MagicBook Pro 16.9mm thickness.
Additionally, the Honor MagicBook Pro weighs 3.75 Lbs versus the HP Pavillion’s 4.78 Lbs. Objectively, the Honor MagicBook Pro seems like a leading laptop in its price category, and it is a genius move to enter the 16.1-inch market, given that 15.6-inch laptops were previously the best-selling mobile computers.
Despite its relatively small size and weight, the Honor MagicBook Pro does not lack ports or battery capacity. It has three full-size USB (Type-A) and one USB-C port. For people who connect to projectors often, there’s also a full-size HDMI port, so you won’t live in fear of losing your dongle.
Finally, the laptop has a 56Wh battery, which is in-line with a lot of 13-14” computers, but its secret weapon is a 65W charger that can replenish the battery from 0 to 50% in 30mn.
Honor Band 6
As a follow-up to the Honor Band 5 (of one of our “Ubergizmo Picks” for this CES), this new iteration brings a 1.47-inch OLED display and a slicker design that even as certain aspects of the Apple Watch’s rounded features. That said, at an estimated price of $35, it is much more affordable and can do this:
- Heart rate sensor
- Blood oxygen monitoring
- Sleep/stress tracking
- Swim tracking
- And more
You can confidently go to the swimming pool with it (up to 5ATM pressure underwater), and the battery can last between 10-14 days, depending on actual usage, so you won’t have to charge it every single night.
Availability outside of China has not yet been announced but expect to find this product in retail “soon.” The price is in-line with other competitors such as Xiaomi and Amazfit, so we expect Honor to be extremely competitive in this segment.
